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Central Planners Are In A State Of Panic

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Chris Martenson via Peak Prosperity,

The central planners are in a state of fear and panic.  They are trying everything and anything to create market validation for their policies, watching with trepidation as their favored economic metrics fail to respond to all of their frenzied efforts.

They are so far over the tips of their skis right now that there's nothing they won't do. They've summarily thrown granny under the bus because they have this idea that negative real interest rates are the cure.  The cure for what?  The massive amounts of debts and imbalances their prior policies caused.  So savers are punished in the pursuit of policy.  You know, 'for the greater good' and all that.

They've spurred the greatest wealth gap ever in US history, greater even than at the extremes of the Great Depression, apparently without the slightest concerns for Plutarch's ancient admonition that "An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics."

They've even gone so far in Europe as to now force negative nominal interest rates on savers, dispensing with their usual slight-of-hand of letting inflation steal from each unit of currency in their system.  When you're panicking, there's no time for subtlety. 

They look the other way as "someone" dumps huge amounts of gold contracts into the wee hours of the night, seeking one thing and one thing only: lower prices.  But that's okay because the central banks destroyed price discovery a long, long time ago. First by invalidating the price of money itself (by driving interest rates to zero), and then in everything else -- most importantly risk.

The Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan (BOJ), and the ECB have decided that they want you to take your money out of your bank account and place it into the stock market.  Apparently they have models that say this is a good thing.  Or they just want you to spend it.  And to be sure that you follow their wishes, they don't leave you any better options -- and so virtually every hard asset has been targeted for price suppression.  Except real estate because, hey, you have to borrow a lot of money from the banks for that, so they encourage and cheer your participation there.

In short, everything the central planners have tried has failed to bring widespread prosperity and has instead concentrated it dangerously at the top.   Whether by coincidence or conspiracy, every possible escape hatch for 99.5% of the people has been welded shut.  We are all captives in a dysfunctional system of money, run by a few for the few, and it is headed for complete disaster.

To understand why, in all its terrible and fascinating glory, we need look no further than Japan.

A Black Swan Flaps Its Wings 

Back in 2012, Japan was my favorite candidate to be the black swan of the year -- meaning it could shock everyone and flip our reality to a new state. Of course,  this has taken longer to play out than I initially thought.

However, here in November 2014, the world finally seems to be on the verge of waking up to the inevitable financial disaster that stalks Japan.

Japan is really in no better or worse shape than the rest of the developed world. But is a few chapters further along in the story, which means it holds both explanatory and predictive power for most of the developed nations.  This is why we should study it closely.

The mystery, as always, is how so many participants are willing to pretend all is normal with Japan; merrily buying and holding Japanese yen and government debt instruments.

In a nutshell, every single monetary, economic, fiscal and demographic trend is working against the very goals that the Bank of Japan, in cahoots with the Japanese government, is trying to attain.

To make this clear, first, we're going to sketch the outlines of predicament and then, next, examine what will happen when it all finally breaks down.

The Halloween Massacre

On Friday, October 31 2014 the Bank of Japan (BOJ) made a surprise announcement of a major new policy move that was specifically targeted to have maximum impact on the markets.

But it wasn't a unanimous or popular decision:

Split Vote Shows BOJ’s Kuroda Walking on Tightrope

Nov 2, 2014

 

TOKYO—The Bank of Japan ’s surprise move to flood the economy with more money boosted stock prices and gave a lift to its fight against deflation, but a rare split vote over the decision means further action will be difficult for Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda.

 

Those with knowledge of the maneuverings behind Friday’s 5-4 decision to step up the central bank’s yearly asset purchases point to growing skepticism among the BOJ’s nine policy board members toward the radical policy rolled out by Mr. Kuroda a year-and-a-half ago.

(Source)

The announcement specifically was that the BOJ would increase its purchases of Japanese government bonds to 80 trillion yen (up from 60 - 70 trillion) and triple its purchases of stock funds to 3 trillion yen annually.

You have to love the coded phrase used in the above article -- "gave a lift to its fight against deflation" -- which decoded means "they partially wrecked the yen which makes import prices go up (and which is not the same thing as the inflation they seek)."  When you wreck your currency, all you do is steal purchasing power from savers and transfer it somewhere else, in this case to those most indebted and/or leveraged -- the biggest of these beneficiaries being the Japanese government and large speculators.

Also the 5-4 decision is quite telling. It indicates that this bold -- or reckless -- policy (depending on your point of view), is already not very popular, suggesting that it's more of a last desperate. Patience is wearing thin.

While some still question whether the US Federal Reserve is monkeying about directly in US equity markets, there is no such uncertainty with the BOJ: it openly buys equities under the pretense that a rising equity market is somehow good for the Japanese economy.  This is a rather indefensible view, because the relative elevation of the Nikkei has nothing to do with how the economy will perform, as it's a derivative of the economy (or is supposed to be) not a driver of the economy.

After all, once a stock has been launched into the stock market, all that happens when a stock moves up and down is that money flows from one set of trading accounts to some others as people buy and sell.  By buying equities, the BOJ has effectively said it wishes transfer an even greater amount of money from its accounts to others.

It's merely a gift to current holders of Japanese equities, which is a subset of the Japan population. Again not a terribly defensible, rational or fair policy. But there you have it.

Immediately on the news of this next round of wealth transfers and money printing, the Nikkei index leapt 1700 points and the yen plunged: 

(Source - ZH)

The virtual lockstep nature of the falling yen and rising Nikkei tell us that we are living in an age of massive and rampant speculation where financial markets react in concert to the newly-unleashed liquidity floods.   

All that matters in today's "markets" is how much more money the central banks are going to throw into the system.  That's all the gigantic speculators care about, and fundamentals and long-range issues are not even remotely near the top of their list of important trading variables.

Unfortunately, like most market moves these days, the recent plunge in the yen and the rise in the Nikkei provide few useful clues as to Japan's actual current and/or future economic prospects.

What This Really Means

Okay, it's time to face some unpleasant facts.  Ignoring the market gyrations because those have pretty much lost all of their true signaling capabilities, the most recent move by BOJ governor Kuroda smacks of sheer desperation.

It's important for all of us frogs sitting in this nice pot to recall that even five years ago such a move by the BOJ would have been utterly shocking. It would have commanded our thoughts and actions for weeks to come. But today, like the rest of the world, I'll bet you've already lost it into the din of other accelerating events barely a week later.

That Kuroda, just one man, can bet so much on an untested and radical experiment is mind-boggling. If he succeeds, he gets to claim honor and success.  If he fails he ruins the 3rd largest sovereign economy in the world, along with its inhabitants' future dreams, for a very long time. How can such power be entrusted to a single person?

Unfortunately, this gamble cannot succeed over the long haul, and he has to know this. So perhaps he's simply focused on keeping things hanging together until he leaves office. 

Here's how the ever-colorful David Stockman described the Halloween Massacre:

This is just plain sick. Hardly a day after the greatest central bank fraudster of all time, Maestro Greenspan, confessed that QE has not helped the main street economy and jobs, the lunatics at the BOJ flat-out jumped the monetary shark. Even then, the madman Kuroda pulled off his incendiary maneuver by a bare 5-4 vote. Apparently the dissenters——Messrs. Morimoto, Ishida, Sato and Kiuchi—-are only semi-mad.

 

Never mind that the BOJ will now escalate its bond purchase rate to $750 billion per year—-a figure so astonishingly large that it would amount to nearly $3 trillion per year if applied to a US scale GDP. And that comes on top of a central bank balance sheet which had previously exploded to nearly 50% of Japan’s national income or more than double the already mind-boggling US ratio of 25%.

(Source)

Yes, my fellow frogs who share this increasingly warm bath with me, Kuroda's move is pure madness.  The BOJ has jumped the monetary shark and we need to keep that firmly in view as we make our decisions about where all of this is headed, and how likely it is to create a future financial accident of global and unprecedented proportions.

Bloomberg's Willaim Pesek described it this way, and I think quite accurately:

Japan Creates World's Biggest Bond Bubble

Nov 4, 2014

 

In announcing that it will boost purchases of government bonds to a record annual pace of $709 billion, the central bank has just added further fuel to the most obvious bond bubble in modern history -- and helped create a fresh one on stocks. Once the laws of finance, and gravity, reassert themselves, Japan's debt market could crash in ways that make the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers look like a warm-up.

 

Worse, because Japan's interest-rate environment is so warped, investors won't have the usual warning signs of market distress. Even before Friday's bond-buying move, Japan had lost its last honest tool of price discovery.

 

When a nation that needs 16 digits in yen terms to express its national debt (it reached 1,000,000,000,000,000 yen in August 2013) sees benchmark yields falling, you've entered the financial Twilight Zone.

 

Good luck fairly pricing corporate, asset-backed or mortgage-backed securities.

(Source)

If I lived in Japan, I would, under no circumstances, ever keep my money in yen. If you live there, get out of yen as much as you possibly can.  Your central bank has said it wants to destroy the yen and their actions confirm this so they are apparently quite serious about doing exactly that.

Imagine if the Federal Reserve was monetizing $3 trillion a year, which pencils out to some $250 billion a month(!).  A proportional amount of money is being dumped into the Japanese financial system under the new policy.

And so naturally, stocks rose and the yen fell, which makes some (twisted) sense. But gold fell heavily on the news, which makes no sense at all from a fundamental standpoint. However, it makes all the sense in the world if you understand that extreme central bank policies cannot tolerate even the slightest whiff of challenge. 

Rising gold prices would signal doubts about the central banks' course of action. Conversely a falling gold price signals utter faith in the central planners. And so a falling gold price is what we get (but true demand for gold and silver demand another matter entirely).

The reason for all of this extreme central bank panicking and fear, we're told, is because Kuroda has a white whale he seeks, which has '2% inflation' stenciled on its side. 

But inflation is not what central banks actually seek, even though the press consistently tells us that's what they want. Inflation is not a cure for anything and the banks know it (and our press really should know it by now, too).

Instead what the central banks desperately want, and know the banking system and over-extended governments need, is negative real interest rates.  That is, they want to force upon savers the condition where their saved money is getting a lower rate of interest than the rate of inflation, which is what we mean by a negative real return.

We wrote about this extensively as a process in this article about the Fed purposely attacking savers. But the mechanism and rationale is the very same for the BOJ as it is for the Fed..

Briefly, when running this program of financial repression the BOJ (and the Fed, et al.) do not care if inflation is 6% and bonds are 4%, or if inflation is 2% and bonds are 0%, as both offer negative real interest rates. Negative real rates serve to confiscate purchasing power from the general population and transfer it to other parties.  Those parties include the big banks. But perhaps that's just another happy coincidence in the game that central banks and bankers like to play with us which they call 'heads we win, tails you lose.'

But let's not be fooled. By the time a central bank is behaving as recklessly as Japan, it's time to edge towards the exit, because the chance of a flash fire in the building has grown uncomfortably high. That is, instead of providing comfort, these most recent moves should invoke greater worry for those of us alert enough to see them for what they are: acts of panic.

There's just no other way to interpret the equivalent of $3 trillion of thin-air money besides an overt act of desperation.  No, things are not okay.  Yes, the risks for a disaster are growing.

Whether we call this the largest bond bubble in history, "reckless", "mad" or "insane", Japan has truly jumped the monetary shark. There's no way back and no way forwards that will be pain-free and this terrifies the BOJ.  The best advice I have is that when you see your central bank panic, you should panic too and avoid the rush.

In Part 2: What Will Happen When Japan Breaks, we delve into the only questions that really matter: When will it happen? And how deeply painful will it be?

And last, but certainly not least: How much of the rest of the world's financial system will come crashing down with Japan's because they are all so interlinked now?

Click here to access Part 2 of this report (free executive summary; enrollment required for full access)

 

 

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Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:09 | 5423530 ZH Snob
ZH Snob's picture

fear, panic?  you ain't seen nothin' yet, boys.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:12 | 5423538 Save_America1st
Save_America1st's picture

those CB bitchez better fear the silver.  It's going to eat them alive soon enough. 

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:13 | 5423549 economics9698
economics9698's picture

Invest in rope.  Sales will surge in a few months.  Fuck the cockroach MF’s

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:16 | 5423559 LULZBank
LULZBank's picture

Better to nail them in Keynes Chamber of Horrors.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:31 | 5423625 MalteseFalcon
MalteseFalcon's picture

Panic? Really? I don't think so.

They've completely saved the Status Quo after 2008 and have given the Status Quo 6 of the best years ever.  The Status Quo has had more than enough time to prepare for any possible future downturn.

Right now CBers are more powerful than political leaders and just like political leaders they are fully protected behind the now well-prepared police state. Downturn?  Pitchforks?  They aren't worried. 

And they continue to smash their enemies e.g. goldbugs as well using obvious manipulation.  Oh, you know about the manipulation?  Good for you.

Who thinks the CBers are out of tools?  Well, you're wrong.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:37 | 5423649 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

I'm going to guess that any of these people who are panicking are the lower level tools who have to support the facade.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:15 | 5423791 max2205
max2205's picture

Buy the mother fucking dip!

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:50 | 5423989 economics9698
economics9698's picture

When the masses miss three straight meals the CBers better get the fuck worried.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 13:36 | 5424172 BigJim
BigJim's picture

So shorting JGBs is not the answer; the BoJ will keep churning out yen to buy them & keep their price high.

That implies it'll be the yen that suffers.

But what's preventing the other central banks buying yen to stop it collapsing?

7 years ago few of us dreamed the CBs would pump so much money into the system to keep it afloat. We had no idea that 'capitalism' - or what little remained of it - had been so completely suspended.

What's to prevent them just buying everything with their counterfeit money? It seems to me they're well on their way already.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 14:24 | 5424374 Four chan
Four chan's picture

actually skiing over the tips of your skis increases control and adds to agility of turns. 

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:04 | 5423750 ZH Snob
ZH Snob's picture

the big differences between weimar or zimbawe and what is happening today is it is a world-wide contagion, and we now have a dangerous and invisible wildcard in the deck called derivatives.

it doesn't matter how long it takes.  there is no way to make something fake into something real.  being that it is world-wide and we have an international tag team of printers this debacle could go on quite a while, but should one of those wildcards show with nothing to trump it, look out.

riots, shortages, suicides, to be sure.  and as bad as that will be it still won't be the grand finale.  the IMF will step in with more fiat of a fancy name and striking colors.  that will buy some more time.  the only hope is that in the interim sound money finds its way back into the world so it can rebuild on something real.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:49 | 5423976 economics9698
economics9698's picture

Tell that bullshit to China or Japan.  Nobody saving their ass.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 13:32 | 5424153 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

All it takes is for one of the members of the tag team to decide that it finally has an insurmountable advantage over the rest IF it pulls the trigger and pops the balloon now.  These people are greedy.  They will turn on each other.  Gangsters always do.

 

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 13:31 | 5424151 Bastiat
Bastiat's picture

They can keep up the precious metal prices fixing as long as they can deliver.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 13:39 | 5424181 BigJim
BigJim's picture

Yes... which is why Russia and China are key to ending the ponzi, because if they could be made to divest their hoards, you can kiss goodbye any true price discovery in PMs for a generation.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 17:19 | 5425128 MalteseFalcon
MalteseFalcon's picture

The FED has its own police force that is plugged directly into police state intelligence.

No worries.  None.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:20 | 5423572 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

Piano, or barbed wire would be sweeter, decorating the cherry trees in DC..

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:47 | 5423963 square wave
square wave's picture

Been hearing that for years. Still waiting.

When it all crashes, food, water and ammo will be the new worldwide currency. You can't eat a sitting liberty.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 13:47 | 5424161 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

"Those CB bitchez better fear the silver.  It's going to eat them alive soon enough."

Not so much "Silver" per se, or even the Silver Bullet, but the hi-tech version of the MAGIC BULLET:  The PGF (Precision-Guided Firearms).

The Gun that aims itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBC8IFWC1P0

    “Democratized accuracy” as he calls it, is "Democratizing sniping for Joe Sixpack".  Skill-free sniping:  Save time, money, rounds to snipe with this tech.  Consistent with the 2nd Amendment.  Heck, you might even put it on a remote-control flying platform (a DIY Drone anyone?).

    Long-range, laser-guided robo-rifle;  the gun of tomorrow, available to DOD and LEAs today.  Available from Tracking-Point.com: http://tracking-point.com/precision-guided-firearms#pgfAnchor

500 Yard No-Look Rifle Shot With Android Using TrackingPoint Shotview    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKldy2YNAHk.  Go Texas!  Hey HH, LOP, you may want to look into this.  If you got the bucks, you gotta have the toys.  And vice versa.

p.s.

3D Printed Guns =   Click, Print, Gun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DconsfGsXyA&src_vid=YBC8IFWC1P0&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_2412460629

Heck, if I were technically inclined like Spock and Scotty, and creative and devious like Kirk, I'd bring a 3D printer, Accessories and select parts to a Conflict area, and print my PGF -- and not even raise a flag at customs.  If I were such a person.  Hypothetically speaking.  Will probably see it in the next Bond film (the Villain doing it and thus send the message that "only Bad Guys would do such a thing"), since Bond can acquire any arm via his Gov/MIC.

So... back to your argument about Silver... If you like your shiny metal, you can keep your shiny metal.  But riddle me this:  When TSHTF, which will be more useful and persuasive 'currency' for barter:  PM or PGF (or even G+A)? 

If you're "shocked" or skeptical, consider that... In a law-abiding society, possession is 90% of the Law, whereas in a Lawless society it is 100% of the Law.  Who are you gonna trust to protect your stuff and your family?  God? [ROTLMAO]  The Gov? [LMAO]  Or your G+A?  Gee, lemme think about that one...

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 19:37 | 5424241 whirling tword ...
whirling tword freedom's picture

Joe 6-pack will never snipe without a lot of range time.

I don't care what kind of gizmo that thing is.... trajectory is the easy part....   it's the fishtailing wind that will get ya....   a 1mph cross wind at 1000yds move my 208gr Amax bullet 6" at 1000yds...( out of a 300wm ).... a 7.62 gets moved 10" at that range...   put in a gusty 5mph wind on a 308 and the bullet will impact "X" or 50" from "X" depending on if you shoot during the gust or when it stops.

Sniping is an art form....  watching the wind at your position then, de-focusing your scope to value the mirage in front of the target, then half way and making a judgement call....  or knowing what your rifle does at cold bore vs. warmed up... some rifles have an impact shift.

And all of the above assumes you can place the shot otherwise... using the correct ammo.... only a 175gr boat tail will even reach 1000yd out of a 7.62x51... the 168gr bullets fall off at about 800yds....  the 175gr bullets are dropping 1" for ever 36" they travel at 1000yds.

Of course my 375CheyTac gets WAY out there.... 1000yds is a chip shot...  at a mile, it's not hard to hit an IPSC target consistantly on the first round.... of course, it's launching a 350gr copper solid projectile at 3250fps....  it's a laser beam.

Think of it this way... the avg. person is 17" wide at the shoulders....  you're shooting a 308win and your target is 1000yds away... your gizmo gives you the elevation perfectly.... you miss the wind call by 1mph....  you're 10" off center which is a miss at 1000yds... you didn't even hit the target....   LOL... also, if you miss the distance and your target is 1010yds and you put dope in for 1000yds.... you missed 10" low.

A gizmo like that won't put you anywhere in the same ballpark as an experienced shooter....  If you're lazy, go get an applied ballistics kestrel... at least then, you can attempt to dope the wind, put in for spin drift, and the spin of the earth.....

My 375 Cheytac when shooting 2000yds....  if you are shooting either N or S, the earth spins out from under the bullet...  the correction for that alone is about 22" at that range... then the bullet spins out to the right some because the bullet is spinning to the right.... that's if there is NO wind.... Once all of those corrections are made, temperature, humidity, wind direction and altitude have to be applied and then, you can take a poke..... 

The scope above may take a few things into account but, it's not going to apply wind... which by far is the largest correction to be made.

This will get you more accurate hits.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss-h9lYk3nQ

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:30 | 5423546 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

Hey Flounder, the sheep aren't talking about ebola and they don't seem particularly frightened.  What are we paying you for again?http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/11/07/ebola-hoax-exposed-the-reality-beh..., check this article out if for no other reason than to see what the RAND corp. (yes, the genius "think tank" who gave us such gems as "a nuclear war is winnable") envisions a "home computer" will look like in the future.  It has what looks like a ships wheel on it!  "With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use".  This brought back nightmare memories of our encounter with Fortran.  We were freshman engineering majors at a small college and as such could only get on one of the twelve or so terminals in the middle of the night.  Maybe it's us, but we could not make heads or tails of this "language" and it almost drove us bonkers.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:14 | 5423553 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Correct.  As far as I can tell, most sheeple are still accepting their paper.  When that stops, then we can start taking heads.  Then we might start to see some real panic motherfuckers.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:49 | 5423701 Crash Overide
Crash Overide's picture

Japan gets it's orders from the same people that run the FED, it's quite obvious.

Next up, Belgium to inject a trillion to pull this thing out of the mud...

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:24 | 5423593 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Snob's right.  This will get out of hand.  It will get out of hand and we'll all be lucky to live through it.

And yes, I would like to have seen Montana.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:30 | 5423618 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father.... prepare to die.

 

 

 

oops wrong movie....sorry.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:31 | 5423623 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

I know it was you, Fredo.  I know it was you who broke my heart.

This is getting to be too much fun doing movie lines all morning.  I gotta go get some real work done.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:41 | 5423668 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Yeah right, like what we do is real work.... LOl

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:05 | 5423766 Conax
Conax's picture

They're panicking out there, I can feel it.. they're panicking.

My god, Mortimer, he's right!

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:33 | 5423638 Toyota echo
Toyota echo's picture

Our own Goverment is saying 87 % of Americans will be dead in the next 10 years? WTF what do you guys make of this? http://www.allnewspipeline.com/Gov_Website_Proves_End_Is_Near.php

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:50 | 5423709 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

FWIW, Google has the originating site listed as "may be hacked."

https://www.google.com/search?q=deagel

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:09 | 5423762 Save_America1st
Save_America1st's picture

the Goog is the government...the government is the Goog.

If they want to tag a site as being hacked all they have to do is update a line of code and there ya go.  They know that word got out about that Deagel site and it's prediction of massive depopulation for the U.S., so they put that "may be hacked" tag on it to get people all twisted up about it. 

Were those fucked up Georgia Guidestones hacked too?  Of course not.  They chiseled in fucking granite that the world needs to have 90% of the population wiped out.  They mean that shit and they intend to make it happen one way or another one of these days. 

These globalist, eugenicist, baby killing, food and water poisoning psychos have been dreaming of killing everyone off for 200+ years. 

But you never see those fuckers like John Holdren or Bill Gates, etc. step up to the plate first though, do ya?  Nooooo, of course not.  They all think they're too important to die...that dyin' shit's just for all the rest of us, right?  They're trying to use technology to extend their own lives.  Fuck them. 

I would propose a new law.  Any eugenicist psychos who dream of and speak about killing people to "save the planet" will be volunteered right to the front of the line.  They can put their head in the guillotine for all to witness what an outstanding example they are setting for the rest of us by volunteering to leave our planet first.

That would shut the mother fuckers up. 

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 15:01 | 5423540 dracos_ghost
dracos_ghost's picture

Spooky how it's playing out fellow mouseketeers:

http://mises.org/books/trts/

(The Road to Serfdom -- Illustrated). For those who read in the bathroom.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:14 | 5423552 1000yrdstare
1000yrdstare's picture

Panic? I would not relate that word to central planners...they WILL have an out if it goes tits up, the question is, what will the sheep do to them? I suspect they will take the next scam they already have in wait...I hope I am wrong though....

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:17 | 5423563 QE49er
QE49er's picture

Central Bankers...Ensuring the Mega Collapse in less than a day.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:19 | 5423565 q99x2
q99x2's picture

all you do is steal purchasing power from savers and transfer it somewhere else, in this case to those most indebted and/or leveraged -- the biggest of these beneficiaries being the Japanese government and large speculators.

And then they are going to kill us.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:19 | 5423569 Otto Zitte
Otto Zitte's picture

The Doctrine of Globalism by Machiavelli's parrot

Why Jerry Brown, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, Barack Obama and Ben Netanyahu's Tavistock profiles are identical, and why Jerry Brown just stole 7B and Obama just stole 6B for The Club, to be laundered by Netanyahu and why Mickey Rogers & Eric Holder let them

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:25 | 5423850 Ariadne
Ariadne's picture

Delicious. All the people on this list are doing exactly what the pigs they hate most would do. 

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:20 | 5423570 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

There are more cliche sayings per paragraph here than your average blog article...

Goes right from one to the next.  Well done.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:23 | 5423588 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

granny was skiing and got hit by a bus. doesn't seem excessive to me. /s

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:01 | 5423740 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Granny was not just skiing, she was skiing "far over her tips".  

 

Now even assuming the tips they are talking about are ski tips and not mamory glands, granny ain't no ski racer....

And this all before she got thrown under the bus....  

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 13:04 | 5424063 Not My Real Name
Not My Real Name's picture

Yeah, not sure where I read it, but somebody else recently used that "far over the ski tips" idiom in another article to describe the current scenario. I think Mr. Martenson subconciously borrowed it for this piece.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 13:41 | 5424184 Bastiat
Bastiat's picture

I'm waiting for them to catch an edge and get a good body slam followed by a high speed eggbeater and complete yard sale.

 

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 19:43 | 5425596 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

First order of business (afterwards):  1. Assess if there are any new pains in yer bod, like a broken ankle, next:  2. Remove snow from face, goggles and the rest of yer bod, then:  3. Try to stand up and trudge up the hill for the skis! :>D

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:22 | 5423578 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

In short, everything the central planners have tried has failed to bring widespread prosperity and has instead concentrated it dangerously at the top...

You CAN'T be serious.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:23 | 5423581 scatterbrains
scatterbrains's picture

 The perfect carry trade borrow in Yen and once it collapses never have to pay it back. How quickly does this snowball ?

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:28 | 5423611 AdvancingTime
AdvancingTime's picture

But how do you do this and who has the ability to do such a thing?

The answer is; The Vilantes there are a slew of  Currency Vigilantes and they are ready to make their presence known. Recent weakness in the value of the Yen, Pound, and Euro must not go unnoticed. The Currency Vigilantes are acutely aware of when a currency is overvalued or ready to be re-pegged and pounce on the weak currency to tear it apart.

The article below questions just how stable the currency markets really are and it may be a signal that currency trading is about to get very wild. Please note, this may also be sending a signal that the whole system is unstable and the stock market is about to drop like a stone.

 http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/10/fed-concerned-that-stong-dollar.h...

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:30 | 5423616 Bell's 2 hearted
Bell's 2 hearted's picture

sounds good ... but will it happen that way?

 

yen might eventually "win" (collapse)

 

but i could EASILY see other central banks try and undercut the yen(and vote 5-4 in japan ... hands tied to respond?) ... and with everyone massively short the yen?

 

Yen could RALLY (short covering) fiercely ... crushing many speculators

 

i'll stick to the sidelines

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 19:45 | 5425610 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

How crazed/greedy would you have to be to jump in this pit of vipers known as the "Markets?"

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:23 | 5423583 AdvancingTime
AdvancingTime's picture

 The recent drum beats and flames of war have distracted many people from focusing on the economy. The markets are extended beyond beyond, all this comes at a time when the IMF is calling for more QE. It seems this might be a good time to review the reasons this is economically unsound and a bad idea. Remember markets are setting new record highs at the same time economies continue to struggle.

The policies of the last six years have yet to produce the desired and expected results promised, all this money has benefited Wall Street but not Main Street. As a consolation many economist, bankers, and those who have benefited greatly tell us we would be in far worse shape if we had not taken this course. More on the subject of how central bankers are in uncharted waters and clueless on how to proceed in the article below.

http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/09/central-banks-and-imf-clueless-on-how.html

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 19:49 | 5425619 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Pouring more gasoline down the carb's barrel ain't gonna help when someone forgot to put some oil in the crankcase!

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:24 | 5423591 Bell's 2 hearted
Bell's 2 hearted's picture

only a matter of time before OTHER central banks join the fray

 

tick tock tick tock tick tock ....

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:25 | 5423594 richiebaby
richiebaby's picture

The guys at the park understand the misguided policy of printing into oblivion, our solution is to drink ourselves into oblivion

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 19:47 | 5425617 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Yeah, yer avatar looks like you've been on quite a bender alright! :>D

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:28 | 5423610 Sick
Sick's picture

So, I have some land and a few planting seeds.  I work the land and plant the seeds, water the ground and vegetables grow.  I harvest and eat some.  I save seeds for future planting.  Pretty good return on my work (investment) and my savings (seed).  If only my currency (savings) worked as well.  Since it does not land and seeds are the way to go.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:30 | 5423613 kito
kito's picture

state of panic!!!?? what a bunch of bullshit. martenson's crap is so stale already. another doomer who has been consistently wrong. hey chris, have you looked at interest rates, the stock market, unemployment rates, gdp??? state of panic????!!!!  hahaha. oh man. you need a day job......

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:47 | 5423698 Armed Resistance
Armed Resistance's picture

It's actually beyond a state of panic, and any rational person can see this. This article actually softens the damage that has been done by suggesting wiggle room like "While some still question whether the US Federal Reserve is monkeying about directly in US equity markets"...

Who is NOT questioning that they are directly monkeying besides kito above? Yeah, Obama is god, the stock market's up, Bin Laden is dead, GM is saved!!

Your troll schtick is so 2012. Go away!

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:54 | 5423729 kito
kito's picture

rational person. hahaha. hey douche ive been here over 3 years. youve been posting for a few months. youre a bit late to the game but at least youve got spunk. you need some reading comprehension lessons. where did i state they arent monkeying around in the markets. of course they are. and they are in complete control of it. as well as yields, as well as precious metals, as well as gdp. as well as employment rates. THATS MY WHOLE POINT. there is no panic. theyve been pulling the levers perfectly since 2008. wake up and get out from under your rock.  

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:31 | 5423629 I Write Code
I Write Code's picture

Well so hey three points. 

First, the economies of the west have been in a long-term collapse for fifty years due to globalization.  Oh sure capitalism has its flaws but so does everything else, let's stick to this one thing or maybe two - automation as well.  Automation was considered a good thing up through about the 1980s, without it we'd need eleven billion telephone operators alone, right?  So hurray for automation.

Second, capitalism *did* just suffer a huge trauma in 2008, worse than 1929.  Now, maybe it was forseeable, but greedhead bankers completely spoiled the nest in their greed, even the "best" of them.  And nothing really has changed since then, things are probably getting worse.

Third, Lord Darth Bernanke has gotten away with an amazing piece of dark side magic with his printing - printing without inflation if you believe the government.  Now other sith bankers want to duplicate his trick.  Are they in a panic?  I don't know about that.  Are the economies at the edge of collapse?  Perhaps, but that would not panic a bankster.  Are they all trying to do the sorcerer's apprentice thang?  Yes.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:13 | 5423784 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

The only possible reason for them to panic is that people might figure out they were not to be saved.  

WS is not panicing about their results.  They have done very well as per plan.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:44 | 5423675 Lmo Mutton
Lmo Mutton's picture

In so deep they don't have to worry about drowning.

They will be crushed by the pressure of the depth of their depravity long before they biologically require another breath.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:49 | 5423706 viedoklis_lv
viedoklis_lv's picture
Vladimir Putin says there was nothing wrong with Soviet Union's pact with Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/vladimir-putin/11213255/Vladim...

 

 

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:49 | 5423710 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

The best thing about living in Japan is that you would not have lost money while buying Gold in the last few months!!!!

Packing my bags!!!

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:52 | 5423715 CHX
CHX's picture

Common... we've had negative real interests for a long time now already... Didn't work, and lowering the interest rates even more will just make things worse. If real incomes of the 80% don't go up and the labor force does not grow with "good" productive jobs (not the waiteress kind) then the demise of the whole economy and the dollar is carved in stone... which it is.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:17 | 5423809 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Hmmm, they could lower or remove the guarantee on FDIC banks.  Most people will never get to the 250K it is at now.  2500$ should do it.  Or go negative on that as well.  

Kind of a bankster fee for the rest of us.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 11:56 | 5423736 lynnybee
lynnybee's picture

Z.I.R.P.   N.I.R.P.  ..... it is criminal.   our beloved elderly are already impoverished.   our cherished young people look like weary rag-a-muffins & are literally working for worthless paper money.   (i give my own adult children gifts of food & they are grateful for the help.)

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:08 | 5423772 22winmag
22winmag's picture

People are waking up to their debt chains everyday. Revolution drawns near.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:18 | 5423808 Weisbrot
Weisbrot's picture

want to see markets spike big, just get barak,joe, and john to all resign at the exact same time

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 12:33 | 5423872 bankonzhongguo
bankonzhongguo's picture

There are two world economies these last years.

The one melded by central and global bank long term interests - which is to create a new international and extra-legal financial and cashless currency framework to manage ALL human economic activities across the 21st century.

And two, the so-called main street economy.  The Main Street economy entails folks that live in the real world.  To the stakeholders in the Number One World, Main Street is the same as the "Black Market."  You could be the Taliban squatting in a cave, in a Somali weapons bazaar, an open-air drug market in Platzspitz Park Zurich, the front drive of any Home Depot pimping day labor, or an independent plumber in Anytown USA - you are all unwashed heathens.

After reading ZH these last years, even the best of us must admit that there will not be some apocryphal revaluation - the Reset Button - that will set the world to right, expunge our debts, create a bright future for our children and otherwise bring justice across the land.

We are living in a post-Apocalypse world.  Survival is day-to-day.  There are no rules anymore, but more importantly it mean you should not live by the hypocrisy of others.

The recent US election demonstrates that despite nobody voting, despite neither party campaigning on any material change - there was a sea change that was unexpected.  That is how desperate people are becoming as the rats sense that the ship is sinking.  But everyone also knows that the republicans will not be any different than the democrats over these last years.  There is no mandate from the people.  Only rape, pillage, steal until it all burns down.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 13:44 | 5424207 Notsobadwlad
Notsobadwlad's picture

Kinda looks like the Black Swan is the symbol for Nibiru.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 14:26 | 5424382 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

If Russia or China were to start demanding gold instead of dollars that would be it.
I know it's not quite that simple, but I can't believe no one over there isn't thinking this one through.
I understand China actually encourages its people to buy gold. I said before that a country that feels it can easily confiscate its people's gold would be smart to encourage their citizens to buy. It reduces what government has to lay out, and consolidates all that gold within its borders, just waiting.
A country that does that could easily corner the market for gold...why would they want to DO that, unless they had some plans down the road? Well, if they had the notion of going to gold, as the largest holder, they'd have some control over the price.
Either that, or the Chinese government wants its people to have more bling...that's probably not it though.
If China were to introduce a gold-backed currency, how long would the dollar last? And how many dollars would China demand for its stuff?
Though I don't see inflation as the likely outcome of all this-too many contrary indicators for that-a move like that by China could change everything. Then I'd see inflation in dollars as likely, since their worthlessness would become painfully obvious next to a gold-backed currency.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 14:37 | 5424434 froze25
froze25's picture

This is why we must never let them take our guns.

Fri, 11/07/2014 - 15:18 | 5424636 Vin
Vin's picture

Martensen,  You're being short-sighted.  This is all part of the plan. 

First they print print print, then convert their own "wealth" into real assets, and then create chaos by destroying the system.

Chaos is then used to establish the one-world govt that they (the banking syndicate) are devoted to.  Rockefeller himself told us, 'we'll have one-world govt whether we like it or not'. 

Get ready.

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